


Heaven on Earth

by druswriting



Category: Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst and Feels, Bittersweet Ending, Canon Disabled Character, Character Study, Gen, Genius James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Grief/Mourning, James "Rhodey" Rhodes Feels, James "Rhodey" Rhodes is a Good Bro, James "Rhodey" Rhodes is a Good Uncle, James "Rhodey" Rhodes-centric, James “Rhodey” Rhodes has a Wheelchair, Memories, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Recovery, Wheelchairs, war machine, workshop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-11
Updated: 2020-11-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:33:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27507658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/druswriting/pseuds/druswriting
Summary: Rhodey was taking a break from being War Machine, a break from being an Avenger, and a break from being in mourning too.
Relationships: James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Lila Rhodes, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark
Comments: 28
Kudos: 24





	Heaven on Earth

**Author's Note:**

> I'm borrowing a lot from 616. Jeanette died from drug abuse in the comics and left Lila orphaned and to live with Rhodey's parents. Rhodey's dad being in service\dying in service is also a pretty popular theme. Jeanette died about 12 years before this occurs, leaving Lila at 15 when this story takes place (she died when Lila was 3). Rhodey's dad died before he was 18. Tony's death is the most recent in this fic, which is why it mainly focuses on that. I usually don't like to kill off Rhodey's family, because I like it when Rhodey's happy but I mean. This was going to be angst either way. The comics like killing off the Rhodes family too much, so I thought I'll explore how that affects Rhodey too.  
> Rhodey's memories are in cursive.

Nothing would ever feel like home as Philly did. 

Rhodey had been all around the world, visiting many different countries, in Europe, in Asia, in Africa, in Australia, in both of the Americas. He had been to many cities, many regions, many states. But nothing had ever come even close to Philly, to home sweet home. 

Rhodey was taking a break from being War Machine, a break from being an Avenger, and a break from being in mourning too. Philly felt like home. Philly could never hurt him like the ruins of the compound, like the unusual calmness of the lake house. Philly, his mom's house, was just filled with loving neighbors and warm dinner at 8PM sharp. 

By the second day Rhodey was there, he had wrung out all the nostalgia he could from the city, visiting all his favorite tourist spots, eating at all his favorite restaurants, meeting again all his favorite childhood friends. By the second day, he was lazing around with his mama and his niece, when his Mama asked him “Jimmy, could you clean up the garage?” 

Rhodey turned his head from playing video games with his niece to his mom, “of what?” 

“You have too many boxes there, Uncle Jim,” Lila responded for her, “I need a clean space to work.” 

His mama smiled at the girl fondly, “she’s a genius just like you. Just my luck that I’ll be up again at 2AM because of the whirring machines.” 

They both haven’t mentioned how his dad used to get up at 2AM too, or how it was Jeanette who was supposed to wake up at 2AM. There was no use to talking about how the dust hasn’t reformed around them like all the lucky others. 

“Well, anything for the teenage prodigy,” Rhodey teased, “I’ll just beat her at Mario Kart first.” 

“You wish!” 

Rhodey pulled up the garage doors and coughed at the dust that hit his lungs. His dad’s car used to keep the garage undusty when he would stir it into the road, but his mother didn’t like driving so it was sold years ago. Lila was apparently the first to step into the garage in years. 

Rhodey waved his hand around, trying to clear the dust, and hoped to god his hand wouldn’t be caught in webs. 

He swiped his fingers over the label of the brown boxes, some reading Jeanette and some reading Jim. They were labeled “toys” and “school books” and “clutter” or “photographs” or “shirts”. He pulled up the box that read “creations”, happy to see his baby drawings and the rocket he built when he was seven. 

_ “Woah.”  _

He looked behind him at a young Tony Stark getting the tour of Rhodey’s house for the very first time. 

_ “You built this?” the mini Tony asked, pointing at one of the small planes Rhodey had made. It could fly on his own and he was quite proud of it. One day, he swore back then, he would build one for real.  _

_ “Yup,” a young, newly dubbed Rhodey said, “do you want to see it in action?” _

_ “Of course I do,” Tony had said and made grabby hands at Rhodey.  _

_ Rhodey raised a brow, “what are you doing?”  _

_ “Asking for the remote control.”  _

_ Rhodey smirked, “it doesn’t work on remote control.”  _

_ Tony’s eyes widened, “then how…?”  _

_ Rhodey let Tony watch in wonderment as he turned on the small plane and watched it fly around the garage. “It’s an AI. It doesn’t work all that well, but you know…” Rhodey shrugged, “neither does DUM-E.”  _

_ Tony shoved him playfully, “this is amazing, Rhodey. Not as amazing as DUM-E, but a good first try.”  _

_ Rhodey rolled his eyes, “asshole. Want to see the rocket I built? I think it could give you a run for your money.”  _

_ “You’re on.”  _

Rhodey blinked back tears, trying not to think about Tony’s face while he cradled his head in his armored hand and watched the life barely stay in his best friend’s eyes before he looked away. Philly only carried good memories for him, but it didn’t mean it didn’t trigger things he’d rather forget. 

He abandoned his creations, and pulled up another box, fondly dubbed “Air-Force obsession”. 

~~~ 

He finished clearing out his boxes, and held back tears countless of times, remembering him and trying to attach coca-cola rockets to his sister’s now boxed and ruined skates, remembering the first time his dad told him only the cool things that happened while he was in duty. He didn’t think of how he lost Jeanette to coke and his dad to the service. 

By the end of the cleanup, Rhodey realized how much good times he had in that garage. How many dreams were created and how many inventions were thought of. He wanted Lila to have something like that. Somewhere where she could be herself and develop her hobbies, her future.

Tony had put aside some money for Lila, and Rhodey remembered the day he cried his eyes out when he found out Jeanette was dead, how Rhodey felt like it was his fault, because he pushed Jeanette away, because he couldn’t handle another one of his loved ones getting addicted. He thought of how he cried to Tony that he thought she would pull through for her husband, for her little girl, for their parents, and how maybe if she pulled through for him too, she would still be here. He thought of how Tony was silent, how Tony was thinking, about how he didn’t know what Tony was feeling and he didn’t care, because his  _ sister was dead.  _

The next day he drove Rhodey to his childhood home and sat quietly in the corner while they all mourned. He thought about how by the end of the funeral, Tony was talking to Lila. 

Tony grew fond of Lila over the years. So when he found out that Tony, who had left him most of his things anyway (but most importantly, the suits, the workshop, the designs, and Dum-e, U, Butterfingers and FRIDAY, everything they could have built together in MIT), had also left a trust fund for Lila, and money for Rhodey to spend on Lila, he wasn't surprised. Tony was always kind like that. Fell in love with people, adored anonymous kids, was fond of all robots, all too easily, all too much. 

He knew what he was going to spend the money on now. 

“You finished clearing out the boxes, Jimmy?” his mother asked. 

“Yes, Mama,” Rhodey told her but smiled mischievously, “but I’m not done with that garage.” 

~~~

“Jim,” Pepper greeted him kindly. Sometimes, on rare occasions, when she was joking with him or when he missed Tony a little bit, she called him Rhodey. After Tony? No one called him Rhodey. It was too much. He looked away while it all happened, when he was all over. He would shut his ears until the only one he would hear calling him Rhodey was Tony. 

Morgan was different, though. When she called him “Uncle Rhodey”, her eyes, her hair color, her nose, her humor, all of it Tony’s, he could almost hear it the way Tony said it. “Rhoooodee?” he would ask all big innocent eyes and beautiful smiles. “Unca Rhoooodee?” Morgan asked all big innocent eyes and beautiful smiles. 

“Hey, Virginia.” The word felt foreign on his tongue. But he decided to repay the favor she gave him. Pepper was rarely called Pepper now too. She was “boss”, “Ms Potts”, “Ginny”, “Virginia” and “mommy”, but no longer Pepper. With Tony in the wind, the nicknames he gave, they were scattered too. “Thank you for having me,” Rhodey told her. She was his last stop. Lila’s workshop was mostly done already, but Rhodey wanted to pick up some of Tony’s things from the workshop, things that couldn’t be bought anywhere, but could still be used to shape the future. “Is it really okay that I take some of the workshop away? I mean, Morgan could use it, or Riri?” 

“Jim, don’t be silly,” Pepper told him, “they’re yours.” 

Rhodey smiled sadly, “we both know that’s not true.” 

Pepper smiled sadly back and they both looked to the floor as their eyes met. “He would want this,” Pepper told him, “he wants Morgan to choose her own future. And he wants Riri to make her own name, his help only minimal. Tony trusts in the future. That’s the purpose of his workshop. For the future. Lila is part of that future. He wants this.” 

Pepper doesn’t correct her present tense and neither does Rhodey. 

Rhodey wheeled himself down the ramp Tony built to make the workshop accessible, and thinks of the last time he was here. 

_ “I can’t believe the decorated War Machine has time to see little old me,”  _ an alive Tony, grey streaks in his hair, walked by him, a happy Rhodey rolling right through him. 

_ “I’m sorry, I should visit more,” Rhodey apologized, “the Avengers are a handful.”  _

_ Tony tsked, “you wouldn’t have taken that as an excuse in 2012.” Tony sighed dramatically, “oh, how the turntables.”  _

_ Rhodey rolled his eyes fondly, “yeah, well, I’m doing important things. You were trying to confuse Steve with pop culture.”  _

_ Tony glared at him, “okay, hot shot, do you want me to go on my knees like your adoring fans and pray to the great War Machine, thankful?”  _

_ “It would be a start, yes.”  _

_ “Okay,” Tony kneeled down to the ground, but not to show respect or pity to Rhodey, just so they’d be on the same eye level, “I’m proud of you, Rhodey. You’re a better superhero than I’d ever been.”  _

Present day’s Rhodey tears caught in his throat. He hoped it would stay that way, that Tony’s words were true, because Tony would no longer be able to step up and be a superhero again.

_ “Get up, you dork,” the slightly younger, perhaps slightly more innocent and carefree Rhodey said, brushing off the words, “c’mon, show me what you've been working on. I’m excited to get my hands on a new suit.”  _

_ Tony stood up and brushed his legs, not looking at Rhodey. “I haven’t built another suit actually,” Tony considered his words for a moment and then amended, “well, for you.”  _

_ Rhodey playfully shook his head at him, “but I’m the one in active combat. A little selfish, don’t you think?”  _

_ Tony ignored his tease, “that’s why I called you here actually. I want to teach you how to make one.”  _

_ Rhodey stared at him. He knew how the suit was built, how it was made, of course, but some secrets, like the arc-reactor, were kept hidden even from him. From everyone. No one knew how the arc-reactor worked. Tony challenged him years ago to make a suit all on his own, and Rhodey had been semi-successful. They were a few kinks that couldn’t work quite as smoothly, a few things that hadn’t worked at all. “Tony, are you sure...?” Rhodey tried not to think of what that meant. Was Tony dying again? Was this the way he planned to carry on his legacy?  _

_ “Of course I am,” Tony said, “War Machine is more you than me. You deserve a suit you make on your own.”  _

Rhodey cleared his mind of the memory by blinking rapidly, cleared his eyes of the sting by blinking rapidly, and started gathering some things Lila could use in her own workshop, to make her own things, perhaps even her own suit, if she so chooses.

~~~

“Can I take the blindfold off now?” Lila complained, “it’s not the same if you don’t cover my eyes with your hands.” 

“Oh, sorry,” Rhodey drawled sarcastically, “I didn’t know I could walk again just so my niece won’t complain about a blindfold.” 

“Yeesh, sorry, okay.” 

Rhodey made one last arrangement and rolled backwards to marvel at his handiwork. Satisfied with the result, he grinned and told Lila, “you can take it off now.” 

Lila breathed “finally” and then took off the blindfold, looking into the brightly colored white walls of the garage, scanning the tables in the workshop, with the VR glasses lying around, the wrenches and hammers neatly organized inside a tool box for her to use, and the holograms floating above the tables. She looked at the gadgets on the walls, at the inspiration pictures, the brilliant designs and the posters of people Lila admired. She looked at the materials in the workshop, the different metals lying around, the nails, the hard drives, the computers to code into. She looked at it all with awe. 

Before Rhodey knew, two arms wrapped tightly around his neck, “thank you, Uncle Jim! Thank you, I love it so much!” 

Rhodey closed his eyes and thought of a different hug, one that happened many, many years ago. 

_ “I think you’re using my height to your advantage,” Rhodey complained at the hands still on his eyes, “c’mon, Tones, let it up, I want to see.”  _

_ “Alright, alright,” Tony said and removed his hands, revealing the new workshop he built right in his new mansion in California, “ta-da! What do you think?”  _

_ Rhodey looked at the spacious workshop, the tables in the middle surrounding a circle that opened to the wine cellar, the cars for Tony to fix up on one side, coffee machines and a small kitchen to the other side. There were holograms all around them and places for DUM-E and U to nest in. Empty spaces were in between it all, for Tony to sit on the ground and think, just like he loved to do. “So. Cool,” Rhodey breathed in awe.  _

_ “I’m glad you think so,” Tony grinned, “because I have a desk for you too.”  _

_ “What?” Rhodey asked, surprised, “Tony, you really shouldn’t have. I would be busy and it’s a waste.”  _

_ “Your mama would kill you for accepting a gift so rudely,” Tony teased him and pushed him to sit at the desk.  _

_ The table was filled with designs of planes, and rockets, and even spaceships, a sketching pad and sketching paper on it as well. Tony had drawn a little Captain America shield on the table, probably to tease him, but the poor drawing was more embarrassing for Tony.  _

_ “Do you like it?” Tony asked nervously.  _

_ Rhodey pulled him into a hug, “I love it, Tones. Thank you.”  _

_ “Don’t mention it,” Tony brushed off, but melted into the hug.  _

“Of course, Lila,” Rhodey told her, “I would do anything for you. Don’t mention it.” 

~~~

Lila let Rhodey use the workshop with her sometimes. Rhodey wanted to let her choose the own area of expertise she’d like, but she loved working on the suits with him, so Rhodey and her shared the work space from time to time, and she helped him build more suits and make more modifications. He would test the suit using the VR remote control glasses, and they would mark what was wrong with the suit, and fix accordingly. He often thought about how Tony and he used to do it too, work side by side in separate projects, or work together on the armor or a rocket. 

Once Lila asked him, “will I be able to pilot the suit once?” 

Rhodey thought about the fact he could only remote control the suit, and all the suits were built empty, flown empty. He thought of the reason it was built that way. He thought, maybe one day, the empty space in the suit would be filled with Lila. And then Rhodey was thrown back to a decade and a half before, to when Rhodey was helping Tony in his early Iron Man days, when he was designing something he didn’t know who for.

_ “You’re putting too many weapons in the suit,” Tony complained, “it will be unbalanced and sink to the water from the weight.”  _

_ Knowing Tony was only joking, Rhodey said, “why did you ask for my help if you don’t accept my opinions?”  _

_ “Honestly? For the ego boost.”  _

_ Rhodey raised a brow at him, “we both know I’m the wrong person for that.”  _

_ Tony shrugged, “you have your moments. To be honest, I expected you to be more reasonable about the design. Mellow me out. I think if you pilot this you’ll be more reckless than me.”  _

_ Rhodey’s eyes shined, “you think I’ll pilot this one day?”  _

_ Tony smirked to himself, as if he had some secret joke in mind, one Rhodey won’t understand yet, “I think there’s a big chance that might happen, yes. But it’ll probably be over my dead body, because it will be a long time before I let you find out all the suit’s secrets. You wouldn’t be able to keep your mouth shut about it.”  _

_ Rhodey huffed, “would you calm down, drama queen? I’ll never sell you out. Only for more than your net worth.”  _

_ “Woah, you’re not cheap, Rhodes!”  _

_ They continued bickering back and forth, about the design, the color, the name, until the second suit Tony had ever made, until War Machine, was created.  _

Rhodey smiled at his niece, “as long as you don’t steal the suit, and you’ll be under my watchful eye at all times, I don’t see a reason why not.” 

Lila beamed at him, “cool.” 

They continued to make a suit, a different one this time. Not a War Machine suit, as it lacked attacking repulsors and the shoulder pack filled with weapons. This suit they both planned would get Lila to space. 

~~~

_ “Where do you think people go when they die?” Tony asked him after the car crash.  _

_ Rhodey turned his head towards him, smiling. “I like to think the sky,” Rhodey said, “when I pilot a plane, I feel closer to my dad at times.”  _

_ Tony looked thoughtful, “can you say hello to mom and dad for me?”  _

_ Rhodey smiled and said, “of course.”  _

_ He never told Tony he didn’t feel his parents when he was in the sky.  _

_ He had felt Tony’s parents when he was with Tony. And he knew the fact Tony couldn’t feel them, would make him sad. So he never told Tony. _

“Do you think I’ll find my mom when I get to the moon?” Lila asked him, while they were taking a break from the workshop. 

Rhodey smiled, “if space reminds you of her, you will.” 

Rhodey could no longer fly, not like he used to. He could feel like floating, like he was high, when he remotely piloted the suit. But he could no longer fly, not like he used to. But he still found his dad, in their home, in the service. He still found Jeanette, in their hometown, in her daughter. He still found Tony, everywhere, everywhere. 

He didn’t need repulsors to get to heaven. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Please give me a kudos if you enjoyed and comment to tell me what you enjoyed.


End file.
